The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-08-25

leVe IN the Lord Jesus as your SaViorY
BE says, "Yes." GDO you take Christ for
time and for eternity?" ~Yes." / saw,
Come on, brother; one in time and one In
eternity; brother now, brother forever
Blessed be God for Gospel platform so
large that all who receive Christ may stand
on It'll
think we may overflow the severe sec
tarianism and bigotry in our hearts, and in
the church also, by realizing that all the
denominations of Christians have Welded
noble institutions and noble men. There
ls nothing that so stirs my soul as this
thought. One denomination yielded .
Robert Hall and an Ad0niram Judson; an
other yielded Latimer and Melville;
another yielded John Wesley and the
blessed Summerfeld, while our own de-
nomination yielded John Knox and the
Alexanders-men of whom the world was
not worthy. Now, l say, if we are hon.
est and fair minded men, when we come
up in the presence of such churches and
such denominations, although they may be
differen !from our own, we ought to ad-
mire them, and we ought to love and
honor them. Churches which can produce
such men, and such hearty charity, and
such magnificent martvrdom, ought to
win our aiiectlon-at any rate, our respect.
So come on, 400, 600 Episcopalans in this
country, and ye 5000 Presbyterians, and
ye 2,25o,OOO Baptists, and ye nearly $780,
OO0 Methodsts-come on, shoulder to
shoulder we will march for the worlds
conquest; for all nations are to be saved,
and God demands that you and help do
it. Forward, the whole line.
Moreover, we may also overthrow the
feeling of severe sectarianism by joining
nj har 1anOTuiDu finno N (lhriGfian unrH I
like when the springtime comes and the
anniversary occasions begin and all denom-
nations come upon the same platform.
That overthrews sectarianism. In the
Young Mems Christian Association, in the
Bible Society, in the Tract Society, in the
Foreign Missionary Society, shoulder to
shoulder all denominations.
Perhaps l might more forcibly illustrate
this truth by calling your attention to an
incident which took place fourteen or ff-
teen years ago. One Monday morning at
about 2 o'clock, while her 900 passengers
were sound asleep in her herths dreaming
of home, the steamer Atlantic crashed into
Mars Head. Five hundred souls in ten
minutes landed in eternity! Oh, what a
scene! Agonized men and women run
ming up and down the gangways and
clutching for the rigging, and the plunge
of the hands of the merciless sea over the
drowning and the dead, threw two conti-
nents into terror. But see this brave quar-
termaster pushing ont with the life line
until he gets to the rock; and see these
fishermen gathering up the shipwrecked
and taking them into the cabins and wrap
ping them in the iannels snug and warm;
and see that minister of the Gospel with
three other men getting into a lifeboat and
pushing out for the wreck, pulling away
across the surf and pulling away until
they saved one more man, and then getting
back with him 10 the shore. Can those
men ever forget that night? And can they
ever forget that companionship in peril,
companionship in struggle, companlonship
in awful catastrophe and rescue? Never!
Never! In whatever part of the earth they
meet they will be friends when they mem
ton the story of that awful night when the
Atlantic struck Mars Head.
Well, my friend, our world has gone
into a worst shipwreck. Sin drove it on
the rocks. The old ship has lurched and
tossed in the tempest of six thousand years.
Out with the life linel do not care what
denomination carries it. Out with the life
boat! do not care what denomination
rows it. Side by side in the memory of
common hardships, and common trials,
and common prayers, and common tears,
let us be brothers forever. We must be.
We must be.
One army OF the living God
To whose command we bow;
Part Of the host have crossed the flood
And part are crossing now
And expect to see the day when all de-
nominations of Christians shall join hands
around the cross of Christ and recite the
creed: II believe in God the Father
Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth, and
in Jesus Christ, and in the communion Of
saints, and in the life everlasting" May
God inspire us all with the largest hearted
Christian charityl